GENEVA – The emergency room at Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza, which was destroyed by Israeli bombing, is “a bloodbath” and “needs revitalization,” the WHO said on Sunday.

A team from the World Health Organization and other United Nations agencies was able to deliver medical supplies to the hospital, the largest in the Palestinian territory, on Saturday.

In a statement, the WHO said that “tens of thousands of displaced people are using the hospital building and grounds for shelter” and that there are “severe shortages” of drinking water and food.

“The team described the emergency room as a ‘bloodbath’ containing hundreds of injured patients and new patients arriving every minute,” the organization said, adding that “patients with traumatic injuries were stitched up on the floor… (and) There is no pain therapy.

The hospital functions minimally and has very few staff. The WHO said that “critical patients will be transferred to Al-Ahli Arab Hospital for operations.”

Operating theaters are not functioning due to lack of oxygen and supplies and according to the WHO team it is a “hospital in need of resuscitation”.

Only 30 patients can receive dialysis daily.

The entire health infrastructure in the Gaza Strip has been hit hard by bombings and ground operations by the Israeli army since Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israeli territory on October 7.

According to the latest figures from Israeli authorities, the attack killed around 1,140 people, mostly civilians, and took 240 hostages.

According to Hamas, 18,800 people, mostly women and children, were killed in Israel’s retaliatory offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Israel has accused Hamas of operating a command center beneath the hospital, which enjoys special protection under martial law, although hospital officials and the Palestinian militant group have repeatedly denied it.

The WHO said it would reinforce Al-Shifa “in the coming weeks” so it could resume basic services.

“Up to 20 hospital operating rooms and post-operative care services can be activated if they are regularly supplied with fuel, oxygen, medicines, food and water,” the WHO said, along with necessary personnel.

Currently, Al-Ahli Arab is the only hospital in the entire northern Gaza Strip that is “partially functional,” while three hospitals – Al-Shifa, Al Awda and Al Sahaba Medical Complex – are only minimally functional.

Before the war there were 24 operating facilities.

The WHO also expressed concern about Kamal Adwan Hospital, where the Hamas Health Ministry said on December 13 that the Israeli army had fired on patient rooms in the besieged facility.